This long-awaited collection from Greg Field explores his mid-continent heritage, complicated by mixed Potawatomi Indian and Jewish families. How to survive broken histories? Try jazz. Try humor. Try speaking from the heart. This poet’s poet appeals to all readers. Greg Field’s The Longest Breath (Mid–America Press) was a Thorpe Menn Finalist, and End of This Set is from BkMk. Fieldhas degrees in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He plays percussion in River Cow Orchestra, an improvisational jazz band.“Greg Field’s heart is in the wilderness, internal as well as external; the wilderness of dream, memory, and imagination, as well as grassland, river, and forest. These poems demonstrate Field’s craftsmanship, his musician’s ear, and his ability to reveal, through close observation, mystery in the commonplace. Unlike many poets, Field combines his seriousness with wry humor.” (WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE, Mo. Poet Laureate) “Greg Field’s poems move among cultures and time zones toward a language that is tough, vivid, personal, and authentic. What I find exciting is how poems can be both lyrically sensual and imagistically tough at once. This is unfair. The reader gets tossed across boundaries and has to gasp for breath.” (ROBERT STEWART, Editor, New Letters) “The speaker’s report in Greg Field’s Black Heart, that he was taught early ‘to track and stalk,’ proves apt orientation for the poems that follow, which stay on the trail of human presences that are often ghostly (departed ancestors, departed loved ones), and natural presences that are often fleeting (evening light, autumn leaves).” (H. L. HIX, author of As Much As, If Not More Than)